DecryptionsIn Germany, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, the VTC platform has sought the best relays to obtain favorable regulations for its activity.
The “Uber Files” paint an extremely precise portrait of the efforts made by the American start-up to establish itself in cities around the world in the mid-2010s. A veritable practical manual, these 124,000 documents shed light on the different strategies used by Uber lobbyists to impose their views, by seduction or by force.
“Uber Files”, an international investigation
“Uber Files” is an investigation based on thousands of internal Uber documents sent by an anonymous source to the British daily The Guardianand forwarded to International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 42 media partners, including The world.
Emails, presentations, meeting minutes… These 124,000 documents, dated from 2013 to 2017, offer a rare dive into the mysteries of a start-up which was then seeking to establish itself in cities around the world despite a regulatory context. unfavorable. They detail how Uber has used, in France as elsewhere, all the tricks of lobbying to try to change the law to its advantage.
The “Uber Files” also reveal how the Californian group, determined to impose itself by a fait accompli and, if necessary, by operating illegally, has implemented practices deliberately playing with the limits of the law, or which may amount to judicial obstruction of the investigations of which he was the subject.
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In Germany, the editor and secret investment
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s car, an old BMW M3 convertible, is broken down. He didn’t get it fixed, and his driver’s license is expired. In any case, this is what he announced on June 8, 2016, on the stage of the NOAH conference in Berlin, the annual meeting of European tech companies. His arrival was noticed: he entered a Trabant painted in the colors of Berlin taxis, to hammer home the message that taxis are an abomination belonging to the past.
On board the old car made during the time of the German Democratic Republic, the driver is very well known in Germany: it is Kai Diekmann, the editor of the tabloid Picture, the most popular German newspaper, with 1.2 million daily copies. It is also Mr. Diekmann who questions him on stage. But neither of the two men will reveal important information: for almost a year, Uber has been seeking to recruit Kai Diekmann to lead its lobbying activity in Germany – he will finally join the company in 2017, as “political adviser”. Several documents from the “Uber Files” show that the hiring of the leader of one of the most powerful editorial staff in the country was already discussed, in July 2015, between senior executives of Uber in Europe.
The Axel Springer group, which owns “Bild” and many other media, has quietly invested in Uber
Conference participants are also unaware that its organizer, the Axel Springer group, which owns Picture and many other media, quietly invested in Uber. This stake, which will not be made public until 2017, amounts to 5 million euros, today reveal the “Uber Files”. Part of this sum was paid “in the media”, that is to say in advertisements at preferential rates, and in particular reduction coupons distributed in Picture in the form of editorials.
Did this merger between the Axel Springer group and Uber influence the editorial line of the group’s media? Asked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Axel Springer assures us that his investment in Uber only represented “0.1% of all company investments over the past ten years”an amount “economically insignificant”. Mr. Diekmann believes that there is “never had or could have had a conflict of interest between [ses] numerous discussions with heads of the tech sector and [ses] activities at Picture “.
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